Qatar - Information and Communication Technology

Information and Communication Technology

Last published date: 2024-07-29

Overview

Qatar’s adeptness with ICT manifested during the successful execution of the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup. Various technologies and innovations helped deliver an outstanding World Cup tournament experience and propelled the country into the international spotlight. Qatar National Vision 2030 recognizes that harnessing ICT is critical for economic development and maturing into a knowledge-based economy. In line with achieving its national vision, over the past decade, Qatar invested in updating, building, and integrating ICT infrastructure and capabilities to kick-start transforming its energy-based economy into a well-diversified, and knowledge-based society. The evolving ICT ecosystem in Qatar is expected to propel companies to utilize technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, intelligent automation & robotics, internet of things (IoT), and quantum computing.

Post-World Cup, Qatar continues to emerge globally as a leading country for new technology adaptation, innovation, and system automation. The ICT sector is listed as a priority sector in the national agenda with the sector contributing 2.7 percent to the GDP in 2022.

Qatar’s home-grown companies in the ICT sector are primarily focused on the domestic market, with limited digital solution exports. Only one in ten of the local IT companies serve foreign markets. The growth may be less compared to other GCC countries and advanced ICT economies, but the sector is on an upward growth trajectory with growing opportunities in the market and in the region for firms willing to take the time.

The Qatari ICT ecosystem comprises important structural elements including state-of-the-art infrastructure (Internet cables, high-speed internet, 5G mobile network, and ICT hardware).

Both local and foreign firms, including U.S. firms, have made significant investment into data & innovation centers, startup accelerator initiatives and talent development programs. However, local SMEs in the sector are slow in adopting digital transformation to deploy digital solutions due to high cost and high-risk investments. U.S. businesses can penetrate this group by offering solutions with technology benefits that are more in line with small businesses’ needs. The Qatari ICT market is currently estimated at $6.25 billion and will continue to grow in the future given the continuing needs of a growing country, creating an opportunity rich environment for U.S. businesses to enter the ICT sector.

ICT modernization is a central pillar of Qatar National Vision 2030, since it lays the technological foundation needed to create the high-paying jobs of the future, diversify the economy, and attract international firms. U.S. companies seeking to bring their ICT products and services to Qatar must keep Qatar’s development goals in mind to resonate with potential investors/partners. Other key drivers for this sector are obtaining trusted partners with reliable and secure equipment, hardware, and software; privacy protection for residents; and mitigation of cybersecurity risks such as data breaches, exploitation, and cyber-espionage. Also of concern in the Qatari ICT sector is the prevention of unauthorized access of sensitive commercial and personal data, which could threaten privacy, economic sovereignty, intellectual property, and overall national security.

The Qatar Smart Nation Program, led by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, aims to harness technology and innovation to improve quality of life and help drive sustainable economic development across five priority sectors: Transportation, Logistics, Environment, Healthcare, and Sports. In line with the Smart Nation Program, individual government agencies, including the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Municipality, and Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, continue their respective “digitization” strategies. An updated Qatar’s E-government digital strategy is expected later this year which may provide several opportunities for U.S. companies to develop smart solutions and applications in key sectors using advanced technologies in AI, blockchain, cloud computing, big data analytics, and IoT.

Qatar has made impressive strides and announcements aimed at achieving its Smart Nation goals, including the establishment of a Microsoft Azure Data Center, which launched in August 2022, and Google Cloud Region Center offering managed DNS services in May 2023. Qatar places cloud computing at the heart of its digital strategy as it enhances efficiency and productivity. In 2022, the Qatar Communication and Regulatory Authority published a Cloud Policy Framework approved by the Cabinet. Cloud services, ICT software and hardware, and services are all forecasted as growing areas in the coming years.

Sub-Sector Best Prospects

Cybersecurity
E-commerce
Financial technology
Healthcare
Logistics
Smart City solutions
Cloud services

Opportunities & Major Trade Shows

Qatar has a clear development agenda in the ICT sector and is receptive to working with U.S. companies to procure top-quality, safe, and secure products and services. Large U.S. firms have experienced great success in recent years. There are opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) with products and services in the ICT ecosystem that can capitalize on having large U.S. firms as anchors in this market. There is an appetite from the Qatari private and public sectors to have more U.S. SME engagement in the market. U.S. SMEs could explore opportunities in the cloud services such as infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service, (SaaS).

The key driver of ICT growth is the large-scale infrastructure-driven and government-led projects.